Grinding apparatus and process



Feb. 17, 1948.

GRINDING APPARATUS AND PROCESS Filed Jan. 18, 1946 2 Sheps-Sheet 1 IQTTOENEYS DUNCAN 2,436,252

Feb. 17, 1948.

L. DUNCAN 2,436,252

GRINDING APPARATUS AND PROCESS I Filed Jan. 18, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 nvmvron A A NE Dl/NC A N ATTORNEYS.

Patented Feb. 17, 1948 siren snares Parr. o;F F-i..cs

GRINDING APPARATUS AND PROCESS LaneDuncan; Los Angeles, Calif.

.. AppIic'ationJanuaryIS, 1946;?SrialNo'. 641",990

1:5. Claims. (01. :51-'-'-103) body of the pin; but also accurately formsboth ends "thereof, finally severing 1 the-pin from the bar in finished form.

Another objectis toyprovidedmproved method and apparatus'by which slich pins-are formed by agrinding operation without "any necessity 0f chucking the -work, --reliance-being had-entirely upon the forming and cross feeding devices for accurate centering.

'Still another object is --to"*provide improved grinding apparatusfor the purpose described,

'characterizsidby the" provision of automatic means "for feeding,- supporting --and- -rotating-* a stock-bar during'its 'stepfbystepmovement along the working face of a grinding wheel or" wheels which in two or more steps, perform=the operations-of preliminary grinding or roughing down, finishing, and cutting ofi the finished-piece.

Another object is to improvethe'=work-supporting, centering-'- feeding and stop devices,- in such manner as to'permit fine and accurate' vadjustment of all par-ts, but ''nevertheless' insuring extreme accuracy in theform; shape-and -dim'ensions-of th i'inished product. v

Finally," anotherobject is to generally improve the-mechanism insuch manner as to makeall its-operations "automatic, -*requiring-no attention by -the operator, except-to --insert *the stock' bar and-start the machine, "andwhich mechanism has an unusually high rate =-of-* production and "emcie'ntly turns out a=product of *hi-ghquality.

Further obi'ects of the invention in partare obvious and inparb will appearmore' in detail hereinafter.

In the drawings, Fig: 1 is a-plan view, illustrating oneform-of machine suitable foripractice of the invention;

Figi'Zis a frontelevation; on a -larger*scale, the workand the 'tube througlr which it is fed being showninsection; I

Fig. 3 is a detail plan= view-,-=showing-the workingipartsibeginninlgnrr operation on a -fr esh stock rod;

Fig. 4'; is a similar "view," at an intermediate stage-of the-grinding'operation;

Fig: fiis-a' similar view, sho wing completion of the-operation;

=-Fig:''7'isaidetail sectional elevation on theline 1- 1,Fig .5;

Fig. 8 is a similar section on theline a li; Rig. 5; and I Fig; 911s a-- view;cor-responding--to Fig. 5- and illustratingyanother a rrangen' ent einbodying the invention. I 7

-In-Figs.-2= to'" 9,--inclusi-ve;' the size ofthe work has been --somewhat- -exaggerated withrespect-to its actual;- cress sectional' -size; for clearness of illustration.

While the present machine is--adapted for the manufacture of any article which can 'beemade from small diameter cylindrical-bar or wire stock by appropriate reduction-by grinding of the-shape and diameter of its shankor body and =end portions, for convenience and in nosense of limitation it has -been illustratedin aciorm adapted-.for the manu-facture of wery small pivot pins 1 or "shaf-ts -such asare= -used-for --the balance wheels of clocks,-or the rotating parts of delicate instruments; such as electric meters and the like.

Re'ferring =to Fige 4g zthe-present machine is design'ed to producesiroma stock-bar A; one by one, a seriesatpivot pins "B; each-having a cylindrical body o'r shank and two opposite conical or-pointed endsy'as shown. These pins are relatively small, being of-the order 0f "2 4 inch long, with thediameter -0f- -the shank o'f" the order-of .020 to 040 inch or-so. -Thus the machinemust work to very close dimensions and limits of tolerance, and in addition must support and hold-the work in-such manner -that the finished product in cross section dsatruly circularabout a definite axis.

The pres'ent machinecmawbe assumed to operatesupon a, c'ylindri'cal stock rod-made of hard steel wireandrhaving a diameter of -.040--inchand being f-ro'm-jthree' to' five-'feet -or more in lengt-h, withthefinished pin 'about' /4 inch long.

The machine illustrated comprises aw-hase, shown-conventionally at I 0; on-which are mounted supports 1 I; I2 in which are journalled the shafts 14 of a grinding wheel 15 and a Work feeding or regulating wheel Hi, "the former bein about 20 inches and thelatter about l l inchesgin diameter. Onej support; as {2 may be, adjustablefi-n any suitable mariner toward and from the other forac'curately pl g'" hetwowheelswith reference'tweaeh other mtheir first setup and from time to time as wear occurs. Both wheels are rotatable. The grinding wheel is turned in the direction of arrow a Fig. 2, at about 1200 R. P. M. or 6000 feet per minute peripheral speed, by belt drive at I! from motor I8, while regulating wheel I6 is rotated, in the direction of arrow 1) Fig. 2 at about 12 to 22 R. P. M by drive from motor l9 through the speed reduction mechanism shown conventionally at 20 and belt drive 2|. Wheel is a hard wheel made of any suitable fine .grained abrasive material, such as Carborundum, while wheel i6 is somewhat softer, being made of like abrasive bonded with rubber, its purpose being to rotate the work and feed it laterally against the wheel (5, which performs the grinding operation.

three to five feet long, is fed to the operating zone through, and is supported by, a metal tube,-

23, of small internal diameter, say A; inches, to reduce whip of the rod when rotating, This tube, at its outer end, is mounted in a fixed support shown conventionally at 24, and at its inner end is removably mounted in a seat 25 between a supporting block 26 and a spring leaf 21, the block being adjustable, as by release of the clamping bolts 28, which pass through elongated slots 29 into a post 30 adjustable on the bed in any suitable manner.

When one stock bar is used up the forward end of the tube can be pulled up out of its seat, a new rod is pushed into the tube from the front end, and the tube is replaced in its seat, with the machine ready for another sequence of operations.

The stock bar is advanced or fed through the tube by any yielding light force, such as a spring, although the drawings conventionally show a pusher 3| attached to the rod 32 of a fiuid pressure piston which is advanced in its cylinder 33 by light air pressure supplied through pipe 34.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 3, grinding wheel 15 has its peripheralworking face provided with a V-shaped peripherally extending roughingrib 35, a cylindrical surface 36, a V-shaped finishing and cut off rib 31, a cylindrical finishing surface 38, and a half V-rib 39 for finishing the terminal point of the piece being finished. As will appear, the end portion of the stock rod which lies between the regulating and grinding wheels, is advanced bodily to the left, in Fig. 3, while rotating, against the grinding wheel, until the terminal pin B is fully finished and is cut ofi. During this operation rib 35 partially roughs out an annular groove in the rod, while surface 38 finishes the grinding of the shank, and 'ribs 31 and 39'the grinding of the ends and cutting off of the terminal pin, but at no time does surface 36, usually perform any grinding operation, since its diameter is purposely made less than that of surface 38, Surface 36, however, might be made to carry some part of the load, by slightly increasing its diameter to make it do a little rough grinding on the shank. The roughing rib 35, of course, is not quite so high as the ribs 31, 39, so that it has not reached the central axis when a finished pin is cut ofi.

The stock bar, after every cut off operation, is advanced until its free end abuts a stop 40, adjustable endwise in a fixed support 4|, as is usual, and having a transverse fiat end surface against which the end of the stock bar impinges. This surface is so located that the extreme end of the piece being finished moves laterally olf from the face of the stop as the grinding operation is conel d enabling th e t nd d. n ar workin to movethe arm clockwise in Fig. 2, its motion in 5 The work, a piece of hard steel wireor rod A, I

'4 face 'of rib 39 to extend beyond the point of the pin and take a light cut oil from the conical pin end and finish its point at the same time that severance is completed by rib 31, as shown in Fig. 5.

In advance of the working zone, and closely neighboring the grinding wheel I5, and opposite a portion of wheel I5, I mount a metal roller 42 freely rotatable on a shaft 43 carried by a block 44 having a stem 45 adjustable and clamped in an arm 46 pivoted at. 41 on the same support 30 which supports tube 23. Said arm is yieldingly sensitive to a compression spring 48 which tends that direction being limited by adjustable stop -49. This stop is adjusted to such position that when the arm 46 is fully advanced, the peripheral surface of the roller 42, which engages the work, is outwardly beyond all grinding surfaces of wheel l5, Consequently, when the regulating wheel engages the work, at the beginning of a grinding operation, the work is gripped between wheel l6 and roller 42, so that it begins to rotate before it is pressed against the grinding wheel.

Support 30 also carries a work support, marked generally 50, Fig. '7, which is a wedge shaped metal piece lying between the wheels [5, l6 and extending clear across the face of both wheels beneath the work. Its upper edge or surface 5|, of course, is very narrow, only a few thousandths of an inch wide, so that it is difiicult to show in the drawings, except by exaggeration, but said surface slants downwardly to the right, in Fig. 7,

at an angle of about 30. The purpose of this slant is to cause the stock bar to ride up the incline as it moves toward the grinding wheel and has its diameter reduced thereby, thus maintaining the central axis of the work in the same horizontal plane during the entire grinding operation.

Since the clearance between wheels I6 and I5 is so slight, it is usual, in the original set up of any machine, to use the wheels l5, l5 themselves for finishing the shaping of the work support 50.

This support, roughly of the proper shape, but with its upper surface sloped ed as described, is set in the machine at the proper level and then the machine is started, causing wheels 15, I6 to come together and grind off the side faces of the work support to the proper shape to provide suf ficient clearance.

Coming now to regulating wheel [5, this wheel is of such form and is so arranged that its rela tively slow rotation, 12 to 22 R. P. M., both rotates the work and bodily feeds it, transversely to its axis, toward and into the grinding wheel, while the latter performs its grinding operation. The face of wheel I5 is divided into two zones, l6a, 16b, the former opposite grinding surface 36, and the latter opposite surface 38. In zone [6a the face of the wheel is straight across, as viewed in Fig. 3, it having no peripheral ribs or depressions. But, circumferentially, it is of cam form, having any suitable number of lobes 52, two being shown, the surfaces of which are of gradually increasing radius counterclockwise of the wheel in Fig. 2.

The working face of the wheel in zone I6?) is of similar cam contour, but each of its cam surfaces. terminates at a pocket or recess 53 formed in any suitable manner, as by embedding or setting ametal cup 54 in the body of the wheel, as shown.

The operation is as follows:

Let us assume that a fresh piece of stock has been inserted in the tube 23 and that said tube product. "lhel'owestpart or onefof the cam lobes lnropposite a--pocket-"-8,"is opposite the stochand the *twoinotorsare operating-or are started; "The distance between the high points "of theribs "35, 3 7, es-and wheel 6 "is greater than the "stock dian'r'et'e so that-fit advances'freely;underthe' I01 usn'e s fiuid-press'ure feed, 'untilfits end-em gages stop Ml; Relief-42 has advanced to its 'efxtreme right -hand' position Fig, '2, engaging'the smear the-stock bar. The-stock bar is supported froiii beneath by theinclinedsurface of work'sup i5 port'iill, g v

"*As'whe'el 4 6" turnsrelatively "slowly, it presses thestoek bar againstthe roller 42, and-causes it to rotate counterclockwise in F"i'g*. 2. The g 1"a:du'-

all 'nereas'ingradinsof'thecam'lobeof Wheel l i 'gradually-moves "the sto'ck,"in the operating zone; I'mli'z t'jli'lially and ti) the left 'in- Fig. "2, applyingit tofthe grindi-ng wheel, whose several ribs and surfaces, *by' their rapid rotation, (1200 Rz'k M-h); grind dowri thestoclr bar in the-manner g5:

showman-rigs, 4-and-=suntil, finally, just before thenext pocket 0f wheel 1 Ere'aches' the operating zone, the r'ib 3l cuts through the stock axis. The parts-are usually so-formed "and adjusted that tliisrih moves, for exarnple', 1005 inch beyond the cer i-tral aii's; as shown in Fig. 5. In this final posh eon also, 3 9 also extends-beyond the axis of then-nail piece and finishes the pointed end thereof. Now, whenthe next pocket reaches the operating zone thefinished terminal piece drops into 33 the: pocket,' as in Fig. 6, whiehz-carries-it around over the top of the wheel and discharges it-onthe far side of the wheel, if itdoes not drop out sooner.

Immediately, the stock bar, :now released from- 40 slde feed by a cam lobe .52.,anu ireed from o-bstruction-ahead. of. it, automatically advances one more step. until it .abuts th'e stop. -Roller -42 again advances. z-l-lhereupon all operations are repeated, asbefoi'en When a new bar-is .insertediof course, thefcom- P ete fo ng andfinishing of the ends and shank of the first pin is performed by the ribs 31, 39 and surface "38, But after that, each pin is first roughed out, in-a preliminaryst'ep, by-ribs"35 and 31, and possibly slightly by surface 36, as explained, and is finished by ribs 31 and 39 and surface 38.

In any case the operation is progressive, each pin being formed by a plurality of grinding oper- 65 ation, performed in sequence, the stock advancing one step each time, until finally the finished piece is ejected into a pocket, from which it later drops when the pocket reaches emptying position.

Fig. 9, in more or less diagram form, illustrates another arrangement for forming pins, of slightly modified proportions, by a three-stage operation. Here the stock bar 60 is fed endwise, step by step, as before, against the stop 40, and at each stage is subjected to the operating effect of the regulating wheel IB which rotates it and feeds it laterally against the working face of grinding wheel 63. 64 illustrates the yielding idle roller, corresponding to roller 42.

In this arrangement the rib E5 of the grinding wheel produces a rough grinding effect on the ends of two pins, only partially forming the cone of the pin remaining on the stock. In this stage the shank of pin 66 is untouched.

Bib 61 produces jurther reduction and roughing ten-theusandtlis r as c dut r he. a ae a opera on or aie'rigperiea many hours,witlioiitredress g. v

he nce'hot the grinding-=and-regulating tvheeis-aremeun ponj xed--axes,-and-are hitta'dvance'd toward eachpther by the movement of slides-"or other stray-no question of lost motion o'eeperatm arts -=ai*ises-,--ahduponeach adjustmeiitandset up of'the par-ts extremely-accurate pidduct n -i s possible ever a longperiod or time. It is' unnecessary: in other words, toadjjus't slides or -dtlierwisetb tali eaccountor lost mot-ion "e, '-a's when resetting the machine ofwheelorwheels. "Oneinripo'r advantage of the invention-is the reductiom nest-or thefinished product by reason ofithe possibilityfof working upon hard erred steel "stock; here ofore, in the art inproducin-g thesezverysinal ns, it has-been customary to do so by turni 1 cwna-sort steel stock withcu'tting tools to theproper shape andsize, then har'dening the finished pins, in quantity, by a heat: treatingope'ration, and then finishing the hardened'pinsby. argrinding operation. Mucl 'of the cost orsuc-h'roperations is-elimin'ated by using wirezst'ock already hardened and requiring no subsequent heat :treatment, and. by employing grindingwheels capableof reducing such stock, where turning tools' are unsuitable for the purpose, because of the. great difiiculty of rotating such small stock fast enough'td produce the necessary peripheral cutting speed.

The'machirie also eliminates any necessity of special mechanism for individually feeding blank articles to the working tools," as when blanks are cut off from a bar and are then handled 111- dividually.

The machine shown, with two lobes on wheel It, and rotating the wheel at, say, 15 R. P. M., produces 30 pins per minute or 1800 per hour. All. pieces are truly cylindrical with accurately shaped ends and of high quality. Indeed, in each piece the two conical ends and cylindrical shank are all truly concentric with reference to each other, with no tolerance or allowance whatever. No attendance is required except to insert the stock and start the machine. Consequently the product is produced at low cost.

Other advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

What I claim is:

1. The method of forming small diameter hardened steel pins of the character described, comprising rotating a bar of stock upon its axis, advancing the stock periodically by uniform steps, andbetween advance movements thereof applying grinding ribs laterally to the stock at spaced points to first preliminarily rough the pin ends and partially sever the stock by grinding mamas.

at one pointv between successive pins and in the same grinding operation form the body and complete the severance of an earlier pin.

2; The method of forming small diameter hardened steel pins having cylindrical shanks and-conical ends from a bar of stock, consisting in rotating said bar upon its axis and periodically advancing it step by step, and between successive advance movements of the bar, feeding said bar laterally against a rotating grinding wheel having a forming surface adapted to shape the pin body and V ribs which successively are of increasing height and adapted in one position of the bar to rough out the pin ends and in its next position to finish said ends and complete .severance of a finished pin.

3. Apparatus for grinding pins, comprising a grinding wheel mounted to rotate rapidly on a fixed axis and having its working face provided with a cylindrical pin shank forming surface and with spacedcircumferentially extending pin end roughing and finishing and cut-off ribs. means for supporting a stock bar in a position parallel with said axis and with its advance end portion opposite said face, a fixed stop against which the end of the stock bar abutswhen it is advanced longitudinally to, working position, and a work regulating wheel rotatable on an axis parallel to said fixed axis and having an operating cam face lying opposite the working face of the grinding wheel and engaging the stock bar for rotating the latter and feeding it to the grinding wheel transversely to said axis, whereby at the advance end of the stock bar during each operation one pin is finished and cut of! and a second pin is rough ground. a a

4 Apparatus for grinding pins; comprising a grinding wheel mounted to rotate rapidly on a fixed axis and having its working face provided with a cylidrical pin shank forming surface and with spaced circumferentially extending pin end roughing and finishing and cut-off ribs, means for supporting a stock bar in a position parallel with said axis and oppositesaid face, a-

fixed stop against which the end of the stock bar abuts when it is advanced longitudinally to working position, a work regulating wheel rotatable on an axis parallel to said fixed axis and having an operating cam face lying opposite the working face of the grinding wheel and engaging the stock barefor rotating the latter and feeding it to the grinding wheel transversely to said axis. and yielding meansadapted to engage the bar in opposition to said regulating wheel to thereby initiate rotation of the bar prior to its engagef ment with the grinding wheel, whereby at the advance end of the stock bar during each oper ation one pin is finished and cut off and a second pin is rough ground.

5. Apparatus for grinding pins, comprising a grinding wheel mounted to rotate rapidly on a fixed axis and having its working face provided with a cylindrical pin shank forming surface and with spaced circumferentially extending pin end' roughing and finishing and cut-off ribs meansfor supporting a stock bar in a position parallel with said axis and with its advance end portion opposite said face, a work regulating wheel rotatable on an axis parallel to said fixed axis and having an operating cam face lying opposite the. working face of the grinding wheel and engaging the stock bar for rotating the latter and feeding it to the grinding wheel transversely to; said axis, a freely rotatable friction roller mounted to rotate on an axis parallel to said fixed axis and on the same side of the stock bar with the grinding wheel and having its peripheral surface normally extending beyond the working: surface of the grinding wheel, and yielding means biasing said roller toward and into engagement with the stock bar, to thereby initiate rotation of the stock bar by the regulating wheel v prior to its engagement with the grinding wheel.

REFERENCES CITED .The following references are of record in file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name a 344,777 Griswold June 29, 1886: 1,757,612 BiIlllS et al May 6, 1930 1,850,054 Strickland et al. ..Mar. 15, 1932v 2,032,901 Angell Mar. 3, 1936.: 2,091,655 Scrivener Aug. 31, 1937: 2,386,623 Mason Oct. 9, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date,

, LANE DUNCAN.

the

Date I Great Britain May 23, 1929; 

